Dark Intentions
by Addysen
Summary: Clues to Hermione's past surface drastically. A mysterious ring, with unexpected powers, is given to her without much explanation. It's all that connects her to her real self, her real life, her destiny. But what do Draco and the Dark have to do with it?


**W**hat was the world coming to? How had they gone so long without confiding this information in her? How could this be true? Thoughts rushed through Hermione's head like a tornado's wind. Her family had lied to her! For almost sixteen years...they had lied!

"Darling, do forgive us. W..We didn't know what else to do. Please!" Jane Granger spoke while choking on her sobs. "We thought it would be best not so say anything. You already had so much to deal with, and at your young age, we..."

"Enough, Mother," Hermione breathed. Too many thoughts and emotions were swirling around in her head, causing her so much discomfort that she just wanted to run. "I can't take this right now;" still in her distant tone. "Do you not trust me enough with the truth? Do you feel that I can't handle it!? Why!?" She yelled into the distance. "I have a right to know who I am, where I'm from!"

"Hermione, please there are reasons why we did what we did," Her father pleaded. "Give us the chance to explain." With that, Hermione was unsure what would be the right strategy, run into the street and avoid the truth, or hear about things that she should have learned many years before. With a loud exasperated sigh, she sat down on the worn, old, flowered sofa across from the man and woman whom she had been so misled by. Curiosity got the better of her, as usual, and her thirst for knowledge overtook her; she wanted to know everything. Once more her father spoke, "I guess we'll have to start at the very beginning." He sighed and holding onto his wife's hand tightly, he continued. " I can remember it as if it was yesterday." Although it was almost sixteen years prior. "Your mother and I were out at the old Griffin Pub with the Fletchers' one night, having a few drinks and dinner. We had decided that it was best if we walked home, in case we had consumed too much alcohol."

"We were halfway home when we came across a very unusual sight. There, out of nowhere, came a gigantic mansion. It had suddenly become visible between two townhouses that we knew to be side by side." Mrs. Granger explained thoroughly.

Taking charge, once again, Tom Granger continued the story. "This house had never been there before, although, it was hardly visible through the flames.."

"What?" Hermione looked onward into her father's dusty brown eyes.

"The house was on fire, we could hear deathly screams, and objects breaking on the inside."

Hermione gasped but let them continue, knowing that this had to do, strongly, with her.

"Your mother rushed to the nearest open shop and called for help. The fire department came quickly and with haste, put out the blaze. The police officers that had escorted the firefighters to the burning structure, made their way inside the building carefully and looked for survivors. They found none and left. We had a feeling about that house, though, Dear. There must have been something that they had overlooked. Alone in the streets once again, your mother and I climbed the ruins of the once magnificent house and entered into the charcoaled hallway." He took a shaky breath and continued, " We...we were about to leave when your mother..."

"When I found a piece of paper, a birth certificate," Jane said, sensing that her husband was becoming overwhelmed. "I can't give an acceptable reason as to why it was lying about, but that seemed to be the least of our worries. We were suddenly shocked to hear crying from under some rubble within seconds of finding the certification. Someone was alive, it was impossible. No one should have suvived that fire. It was so much to take in at that one moment. We tore around in the rubble searching for the source of the sobs and then found..." Jane's gaze connected with Hermione's...

"Me," Hermione breathed. Her mother and father nodded in unison. All three were emotionally struck by this and their eyes started to tear up silently. Realization snapped over the young womans face. "Then.. the certificate...the birth certificate, doesn't it tell you all about me, my family? Do you have it? Is it here? Where did I come..." She stopped in mid-sentence and looked up to see four sad eyes looking back at her. Something was wrong.

"Yes we still have the certificate, Hermione, but it's of no use." Tom was clearly uncomfortable now. Hermione looked at him with curiosity in her honey-brown irises. "There is not much left of it now. It was scorched in the fire and was badly damaged even then. Now, after sixteen and a half years, it is hardly anything but dust."

Jane sighed, seeing her daughter's confused look. "The only things that were legible on the paper were your birth date - which is how we know you were born on the nineteenth of September, that you were roughly one-year-old - and what looked to be your middle name, 'Hermione'."

With a sharp intake of breath, Hermione rose from the couch, leaving an imprint of her body where she had sat. She started to pace and think hard. _A house appearing out of thin air, not a house, a mansion. Fires, no survivors, a birth certificate lying in the middle of nowhere, 'Hermione''... my middle name? I don't understand ANY of this_!

"Sweetie, calm down, please there's more." Her dad quietly spoke.

"More?! Are you serious, how can there possibly be more?" The young witch asked in vain.

"With this," Jane said with no emotion detectable in her voice. Hermione looked down at her mother's hand as Jane loosened her clutch on the velvet pouch she had held in her hand the entire time, and dropped it into her only daughter's grip.

Hermione cautiously removed the contents from the delicate bag, setting her eyes on... "A ring!?" She was utterly confused at this point. _Random things are just coming out of nowhere now._ Hermione decided to inspect it. It looked almost like a wedding ring. The silver of the band shone in the afternoon sun that was pouring through the large windows. There was a vibrant green stone present as well. It didn't stick out like a stone usually does in such prestigious rings. The long rectangular emerald was embedded right into the center of the silver, leaving the band smooth all the way around, with no spots that could potentially cause a snag. As the young woman turned the ring, to inspect it further, something odd caught her eye. The emerald had captured the sun light, for a second or two, and Hermione thought she saw a snake embedded in it as well. She caught the sun once more in the emerald and confirmed it. There was an acid-green silhouette of a serpent, surrounded by the emerald-green of the stone. _This can't be good. It reminds me of something that a Slytherin would have,_ she thought. On the inside of the ring something else was brought to her attention. There was an inscription on the inner side of the band that read:

_"To: A.H.B.R. Love always: your Godmother B.V.B.L."_

It was so tiny and squished that it took her quite a while to decrypt.

She was so engrossed in the inspection of the ring that she had forgotten that her parents were still sitting in the room and that she, herself, was still pacing. Her mother gave her a strange look and then looked at the ring.

"Mione, there's just one more thing that we need to share with you."

"Uh, b...but don't take our word as truth," stammered Tom.

"Yes, um, well we could be wrong." Hermione could have sworn she heard her mother whisper 'and I hope we are' under her breath following her last comment, but decided to ignore it and focus on what came next.

"We believe that this has something to do with the dark side of your magical world. We didn't understand any of the strange occurrences that had happened the night we found you, that is to say, until you got your letter from Hogwarts, and found out about magic. Even then we thought you to be too young to understand the truth about your life and kept quiet. We connected more of the pieces once you had returned for Christmas during your first year, and confided your friendships and your enemies with us. You mentioned that one boy, Dra...Drake-Something..."

"Draco, Dear," piped in Hermione's mother.

"Draco Malfoy? Why would any of this have to do with that conniving asshole!?"

"Hermione Jane! Don't you dare use such language in this house," her mother exclaimed. Seeing the hurt and surprised look on Hermione's face she quickly added, "Even if he is a repulsive ferret." Hermione giggled. It was a nice change to the atmosphere.

Her father cleared his throat and continued when he had the women's full attention. "As I was saying, this Draco boy, you said he was in the house, at school, that produced all of the criminals, am I right?" Hermione nodded. "The colors for that house were green and silver?" Hermione nodded once more. "And the crest for this house was a serpent?" Once again a nod. "And if I'm not mistaken that ring that we found with you so long ago, is silver and green. I'm not doubting that a snake has something to do with that piece of jewelry either. It looks evil to me." Hermione froze. He couldn't be implying that she naturally had some connection to Slytherin through her birth family could he? "You may have been of magical origin, Hermione. There is a good chance of that."

"Dad that's complete rubbish," she explained. For some strange reason she knew that they had not, or could not see the snake in the ring. This was bigger then she had originally thought and she wanted to find out what was going on... what, and who she was suppose to be, but to do that she would need to do it on her own. She couldn't have her family clouding her concentrated thought. Could she really be a pureblood? Hermione didn't know how she had figured all of this out, but something was telling her that she had to stop the track that her parents were thinking on. It could get to be too dangerous for them to know that any of their notions could be true.

"There is no way in the world that this ring could connect me to Slytherin, or the magical world for that matter. Just because the crafter used a green stone and silver for the band doesn't mean that it's evil. I understand your concern, but I've dealt with much more than a ring in my six years at Hogwarts so far. I can handle it." She finished off her speech and gave each of her parents a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to head to my room and finish my Potions homework. Professor Snape will do more serious damage than this metal loop could ever do, if I don't complete my essays."

Her parents looked at her with shock plastered on their faces. They had spent so much time deciphering all of this about there daughter's life. They were bewildered that Hermione could make logic of it so fast. There were still things that were unexplained to them, such as the randomly appearing house and how Hermione had survived, but they let it go for now, and watched their daughter walk up the stairs and out of sight.

Hermione reached her bedroom door and turned the knob with a shaky hand. Once inside she collapsed on her bed and let the ring, that she had been holding so tightly, fall from her grip. She didn't have any homework left to do, at all. She had finished it within the first three days of summer holidays. It was just made up as an excuse to leave the tense environment downstairs.

This was a nightmare. But on the bright side there was no way that she was evil and she knew that much for sure, despite her parents needless worry. It couldn't be all bad, she might actually get status in the Wizarding World now. Hermione Granger, a pureblood. Imagine the looks on Lucius and Draco Malfoy's faces when they found out, if they found out. This whole pureblood business would be great if it was true, but right now everything was just so uncertain. She was still Hermione Granger after all, nothing had changed that yet.

Resting her head on her arm she thought. She thought about everything, about life, her friends, her enemies, the mysterious mansion, her true blood family, everything. She moved her head slightly to get more comfortable, which caused her hair to fall in her face. Her curly locks really needed to be freshened up. She felt a bit unclean from the stress of the conversation with her family. Hermione sat up and made her way to the attached bathroom for a shower.

The water cascading down her form was a wonderfully liberating feeling. She felt so fresh and clean, smelling of watermelon and mango, as she stepped out of the shower. Wrapping a fluffy towel around her body she left the bathroom, with an extra bounce in her step, to change.

Once in her room, Hermione started to get dressed. She pulled on soft, purple, lacy underwear, with a deep-purple fringe, and a matching bra. Looking sideways, she caught her reflection in her lengthy mirror. She had changed, but not in the ways she had hoped. Her hair was now down to her purple bra-strap but hung with volume in wildly untamed waves and curls. She was still short and wore her old comfortable clothing; not much to look at.

Long legs, nice, round, good sized breasts, and an amazingly toned stomach were what she had been wishing for the most. _Well you can dream_. She thought sadly. Her face was just the same as ever. The non-existent make up and a freckled nose caused her to look quite young for her age. One thing she had always loved was the sparkling, honey-brown eyes she possessed. Hermione was very proud of what she had become, even if it wasn't of fashion model status. There was more to life than being stylish and pretty, which was fine with her. How would anyone be taken seriously if they looked too beautiful on the job; she thanked God for the way she looked... Although, there was something that always troubled her relentlessly whenever she looked in the mirror.


End file.
